Frank cursed him roundly again, but he stumbled alongside him.
Nicholas took a sideways glance at him. “I’ve been a bad brother,” he said low. “And I’ve come to apologize.”
Frank stopped in his tracks. “Wha’?”
“I’ve neglected you,” Nicholas said simply. “And I’m sorry.”
Frank blinked and looked around. “Am I dreaming?”
“Hey, Frankie!” a rough voice called out from across the street. “Here’s another!”
Nicholas turned and saw a swarthy cooper in his open-air shop, holding aloft a small keg. “She’s a beauty, ain’t she?” A bright fire burned merrily behind him.
Frank’s face lit up. “She sure is! How much?”
The cooper grinned. “A few more shillings than you have in your pocket, lad. Ask your rich brother for some more money.”
Nicholas squinted at the cooper, then looked back at Frank. Was there something special about that barrel? Why was his brother so excited by it?
And why would he want to own it?
“I’m not sure what’s going on,” he said to Frank. Now that he thought about it, there were no alcohol fumes emanating from the small kegs in Frank’s room.
Frank made an ugly face. “It’s none of your business.”
Nicholas grabbed his arm. “Listen to me, brother. I don’t want to hurt you. I want to
“Sure you do. Dummy.”
Nicholas prayed for more patience. “Are you … are you saving barrels for a reason?”
Frank looked down and bit his lip. “I like them, is all,” he muttered. He wouldn’t look Nicholas in the eye.
“You like barrels.” Nicholas made it a statement.
Frank’s forehead was furrowed deeply, but he nodded. Once. Quickly.
This was all very odd, Nicholas thought. But interesting.
“Let’s get a couple of meat pies,” he said. “And we’ll talk about the barrels.”
“Hey, governor!” called the cooper. “What’s your decision about this keg here?”
“I’ll check back with you later,” Nicholas called to him, and made a motion with his chin for Frank to keep up. “I want to hear about barrels first.”
“All right,” Frank said in a surly tone, but at least the pucker in his forehead was gone. And his eyebrows weren’t two slash marks, either.
But still, it was something.
An hour later in a quiet inn, after the two of them had shared a simple meal of steak-and-kidney pie, ale, and a small pudding, Nicholas felt as if he’d just met a person he’d never known. Frank mumbled on and on about barrels. Their different sizes. The various woods used to make them. The great fire always going at the cooper’s shop.
He even chuckled when he told the story about how the cooper’s cheeks blew out every time he had to squeeze the metal hoops around the staves.
My God, thought Nicholas. The man wanted to be a cooper. He was probably born to be a cooper!
But who’d ever have considered it a possible future for the son of a duke?
No one.
Frank was a tradesman at heart.
“How would you like to learn the coopering trade?” Nicholas asked him.
Frank drew in his chin. “Me?”
Nicholas nodded.
“But I—I can’t learn to be a cooper.”
“Why not?”
“It’s hard work. I don’t know how to
“Here’s the secret.” Nicholas leaned forward. “It’s not hard work when you enjoy it. Then it’s called fun. You might work long hours and get tired at the end of the day, but you’ll go to bed happy.”
“Happy?” Frank scowled.
“It can happen to you,” Nicholas said. “You can become happy.”
“Really?” Frank’s eyes cleared, and Nicholas saw something more than a surly wastrel looking out. “But what would Mother and Father think?”
“Why, they’d want you to be happy. And productive. You want it, too.”
“I do?”
“Yes. You’ve just been too angry to see it. I’m going to take you back to that cooper. We’re going to arrange an apprenticeship. If he says no, we’ll find another cooper. We’re not going to give up until
Frank grimaced.
But then Nicholas realized it was actually a small, real smile. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen one on Frank’s face.
“But you’ll need to stop drinking so much,” Nicholas said, “and stealing spoons from White’s—”
“Oh, I’ll stop. I’ll be busy shaping staves,” Frank interrupted him.
“Good.” Nicholas grinned, happy to see Frank had barely touched his ale, he’d been so excited talking about barrels. “I can’t wait to see your progress. I’ll visit every week.”
“Will the princess come, too?”
“No.” Nicholas was firm. “I’m not going to marry her.”
Frank’s face fell. “But you have to. She paid me good money.”
“Where is it now?”
Frank shrugged. “I drank it away. And bought a fine, tall cask.”
“I didn’t see it in your room.”
Frank’s eyes bugged out. “That’s because…”
“What? Spit it out, brother.”
Frank sank low in his chair. “That’s because I bought it for the princess. She told me I’d better get her one to put Lady Poppy in and then send it on a wagon to the sea, where someone was going to place it on a packet to Australia and release her when the boat set sail. I have it in a special place, where no one can find it, in a small shed behind Lord Howell’s residence.”
“You’re joking.”
Frank shook his head.
“You were willing to
Frank blew out a gusty breath. “No.” He had the grace to look ashamed. “I was going to tell you sometime. But the princess is scary. Like a witch.”
Nicholas knew exactly what he meant. “All right, then. Tell me the rest.”
Frank groaned. “The princess said if I didn’t do what she said, she wouldn’t sleep with me anymore.”
“She’s sleeping with you?”
“Only once, and it wasn’t very good. We were at your apartments—”
“My apartments?”
“Yes. Reading your correspondence. Going through your desk.”
“Bloody hell.” Nicholas stood up. “You got in my apartments?”
“I told the doorman I was your brother, and she said she was a Russian princess, and then she stuck her hand between his legs and twisted until he screamed, and he opened the door.”
“Good God. Why were you there?”
“She wanted to know if you had a new mistress and was looking for signs of one. That, plus she wanted to go
